I don't want to make compromises. I want my little silly jokes to be told with the correct punch line, and I'm satisfied trading off the immediacy to fulfill the detailed work of the artistic end of things.

I have no problem with the concept of financial riches, but if you need to change the person you are in order to achieve that, I think you're taking too much of a gamble with your personal happiness.

I always expect there to be a new counter-culture coming up, something that would make punk look as ridiculous as punk made the hippies look.

I'm not a tech fan. I don't get that charge that comes from having the new little gizmo in your pocket. Maybe I'm a dinosaur. There's nothing battery-operated that will help me write songs any differently from the way I've done it for years.

I have a lot of dislike for the business end of the music business, particularly what they call shopping for a label. It can be a real stupid thing.

I've delved into a lot of non-musical projects. Learning new things and accomplishing things with my hands that I put aside as an adult to devote all my time to music. As I've gotten older, I've been concentrating on quality and no filler, and spending more time constructing all of the parts of music, rather than going into the studio with one or two parts and then letting the rest work itself out.

I think a lot of people are having their midlife crisis in public. I think if you left something unfinished, go ahead and do it. But I guess I can't really answer that question in respect to my own music, because it's inconceivable.